Encarta & Chill | A 90s Podcast

Grab your best shirt with three lines on it because the jewels remain gleaming and Encarta and Chill is back with a World Cup special! The razor sharp wit of Des Lynham and tactical nous of Jimmy Hill may be absent from this particular trip to France, America and Italy but Tom and Tom will do their best to muddle through what they deem noteworthy about World Cups in the 90s... Romania's matching h...

Even less research than usual is required today, as it’s that time again when Tom and Tomek wade through the stack of pizza menus by their front door in search of your correspondence. Is there an animal more synonymous with the ’90s than ducks? One listener certainly thinks so! Which Hollywood star could be in line to play a Class A4 steam locomotive? There’s only one man for the job! When does a...

Tom and Tom are on the hunt for the most 90s photo EVER! They've selected 10 of their favourites for 'Encarta Chill's Portrait of the 90s' and you - the listeners - will decide the winner. Before you decide, board the context train that is this week's episode, stopping at... • Anthea Turner sat atop a National Lottery cake • Shaquille O'Neal cradling Bill Gates • Jean Claude Van Damme bored on hol...

What is the best way to enjoy jazz? Is the pen mightier than the keyboard? Is it acceptable to answer the door in your pants? ...they're just some of the intriguing questions posed in this week's episode of Encarta and Chill despite them having nothing to do with the actual subject matter. Headaches, orgasms and the future are the focus as Tom and Tomek take a third look at the world of advertisin...

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our pod... That was almost the title of this very podcast and this week Tom and Tomek discover their decision not to use it may have been the best branding decision since Mr. Kipling. Neil Buchanan is back by order of the "King of the 90s", lunchbox politics are put under the microscope, and human beings struggle to grasp the concept of chewing....

Does playing Guess Who in real time work as podcastable content? Judge for yourself as Tom and Tom journey back to a time when tabletop entertainment was king. This week, they ponder which board game would be even worse to get trapped in than Jumanji, confess their most disastrous Rube Goldberg machine attempts, and scrutinise some truly questionable Monopoly boards. The pirates are popping, the h...

If you ever dreamt of being a pirate in the ’90s, you didn’t need a parrot or a chest full of booty - just a computer and the patience to wait 12 hours for 'Tubthumping' to download. This week, Encarta and Chill explores the murky depths of the criminal underworld: from beloved actress Winona Ryder forgetting to pay for $5,000 worth of clothes, to abhorrent scumbag Tomek Glowacki bringing small bu...

Podcast killed the video star? You won’t SEE any music videos in this audio recording, but you WILL get vivid descriptions of the Spice Girls as fairies, Fatman Scoop as a CGI Jigglypuff, and Thom Yorke as an unruly supermarket patron. In the latest episode of Encarta and Chill, Tom and Tom pay their respects to a fallen icon of ’90s culture: MTV. Press play now - before Ashton Kutcher jumps out a...

Shouldn’t you be at work? Then again, who could resist the sporting carnival that takes the majesty of Italia ’90, the razzmatazz of USA ’94, the panache of France ’98 and dresses it up in feathers? The World Cup of Ducks continues - not because of popular demand, but because choosing 32 contestants was a stupid idea that was never going to fit into a single episode. Who will join last week’s fina...

Encarta and Chill is celebrating its 50th episode and there was only one topic befitting of such an occasion. It's time for the World Cup of Ducks! 32 iconic anatidae will go webbed-toe-to-toe for the crown in a tournament that promises FOWLS, WINGERS and more iconic Chris WADDLE moments than Italia 90. Some beak-watering fixtures are billed! Who sinks? Who swims? Dive in and find out...

Roll up, roll up! The fete is in town and it’s got everything you could possibly want - from cake stalls and face-painting to medieval torture devices and hooker ducks (no, that is not a typo). This is your opportunity to be Dave Benson Phillips for a day, take home your very first pet, and sit on a random farmer's tractor for a bit. Hope you’ve brought an accountant with you, though, because the...

They were on a break! But could they BE any more back? Tom Skinner and Tomek Glowacki return to the Encarta and Chill studio and this time they've brought some FRIENDS along for a watchalong of the world's first (and last) cyber sitcom. Microsoft have promised laughs quantified as "more than a few" as a wacky bunch of propellerheads explain how to send an email, install a printer and run a Yiddish...

World Book Day is proud to present 'Todd Douglas: Boy Wizard' in association with Pinbury Town Council, Pinbury Rotary Club and Southwestern Railways. Written and narrated by the author, P.G. Spalding. Any resemblance to existing boy wizards is purely coincidental. © Funk & Wagnalls, 1999.

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! After being visited by three ghosts in the night, Tom and Tomek have been spooked into doing an Encarta and Chill Christmas special and you better believe it's packed with more unnecessary filler than a turducken. 'Tis the season to reflect upon the legend of Graggle Simpson, Batman and Robin's wildlife crimes and THE most 90s cameo you will ever find in a pantom...

It’s time once again to dial up and clear out the Encarta & Chill AOL inbox before it exceeds its 5MB of storage. When you’re as lackadaisical about research as we are, it’s always a ducksend to be able to turn to our unofficial team of experts with a penchant for penning emails more promising than if they carried the subject 'Pictures of Anna Kournikova, definitely not a virus...' In our four...

If your grandad ever tries to bore you with talk of the Preston North End 'Invincibles,' point him in the direction of the latest Encarta and Chill watchalong. This episode sees Tom and Tom attempting to make sense of the “unprecedented sports television machine” that was Sky Sports in the early ’90s - an operation of Death Star proportions that left fans in no doubt that the beautiful game was, i...

Grab your best Kangol bucket hat, throw on your United Colours of Benetton sweater, and slip into your freshest pair of Reebok Classics – or whatever your mum’s laid out on the bed (Donnay, probably) – because it’s time to talk fashion! The Toms may only wear red and blue jumpers, but this week they’ll be reminiscing about a time when their drips gave Dennis Taylor and Princess Diana a run for the...

Did Mariah Carey write the music for Wario Land? No. Did Michael Jackson write the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3? Quite possibly... And that’s not even the most fascinating piece of video game folklore Encarta and Chill has to offer this week - because this is a podcast that dares to accuse Geri Halliwell of committing high treason in her own video game! Join Tom and Tomek for their second look b...

Hei! Tervetuloa Encarta ja Chill. Jos pystyt lukemaan tämän, älä tuhlaa aikaa tämän tekstin kääntämiseen, vaan paina play-nappia... Have Tom and Tom run out of ideas, or is this actually the most fitting 90s topic of all? Far from the distracting colours, shapes, and sounds exported to British shores from across the Atlantic, one particular Nordic republic quietly set about changing how we communi...

The Toms are planning a birthday party — and you’re all invited… although you will have to fight them for Colin the Caterpillar’s face. Encarta and Chill is celebrating its very first podcastiversary, so expect the passing of anticlimactic parcels, orange squash weaker than a kitten, and of course, a McDonald’s balloon on a stick. Set against a backdrop of sickly Dalmatian cakes, sticky ball pits,...

If - like many - you consider Ryan Gosling's best on-screen outing to be The Notebook, Half Nelson or Bladerunner 2049, you're DEAD wrong. Say cheese and DRIVE as Tom and Tomek fire up the Ford Taurus to revisit one of Gosling's first major roles fresh out of The Mickey Mouse Club... a 1996 episode of Goosebumps! It’s officially spooky season, so what better way to celebrate than with another Enca...

Noble cause, questionable content - a fitting appraisal of both Comic Relief and the podcast that is about to spend half an hour talking about said charity. This episode of Encarta and Chill focuses on three singles that sum up fundraising in the ‘90s better than if Tomek had recorded the whole thing from a bath of beans. David Bowie invents Y2K Futurism, Elton John’s funereal tributes are upstage...

It's Morphin time! Before becoming the cultural phenomenon that was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, an unhinged, unaired pilot episode (and pilot whale!) threatened to derail everything. Welcome to a time when dinosaurs ruled the bowling alleys with their ableist slurs, a sky scraper (singular) had a mind of its own, and a stinky space witch set out to conquer earth... and some other neighbouring pl...

It's about time this incredibly manly podcast got in touch with its feminine side... Following a brief hiatus (that was obviously spent chopping timber and branding cattle), Tom and Tom are back to talk Barbie, Baby-G and Britney. Girl power rules in this episode that explores the parallels between the Ancient Egyptians and Billie Piper, why Polly Pockets are prime real estate, and drops a showbiz...

The House of Lords is listening, Shigeru Miyamoto is stuck down a well, and EastEnders’ Ethel is Tottenham until she dies (quite literally)… and that’s before we even get to your correspondence! WHO ruined a wedding with the help of Bart Simpson? WHAT makes losing at GoldenEye such an arousing prospect? WHY would anyone go fishing for dinosaurs? And HOW many decibels does a Magnum ice cream regist...